LAS VEGAS — Reports of multiple deaths and injuries at a shopping mall in El Paso, Texas, were still unfolding as 19 presidential candidates began taking turns speaking at a labor forum here, the severity of the shooting increasingly clouding over the proceedings.

Sen. Cory Booker was answering reporters’ questions about mass incarceration, his performance in the last presidential debate and former Vice President Joe Biden, among other things, when — as he was leaving the microphone — a reporter shouted, “Senator Booker, there’s an active shooter situation going on in El Paso …”

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Booker, of New Jersey, returned to face a bank of TV cameras and lamented what he called a moment in American history in which “we seem to be almost accepting this idea” that shootings are a regular occurrence.

“I have had enough of this,” he said. “This is a uniquely American problem, a uniquely American problem that we have such mass slaughter in our communities like this.”

Candidates who followed Booker were uniformly appalled, even as the crowd of reporters greeting them had thinned (many scurried as news broke to book flights from Las Vegas to West Texas). But the politicians’ reaction was so similar to the outpouring that has met previous mass shootings that immediate political movement appeared no more likely than before.

The 2017 mass shooting that killed 58 people at a concert in Las Vegas had unfolded not far from where the labor forum was underway. It was less than a week ago that a gunman killed three people at a food festival in California, as Sen. Kamala Harris reminded the crowd.

Greeting the audience in Las Vegas, Harris said she had a presentation prepared but that the situation was only worsening in El Paso.

“The numbers are going up," she said of the fatalities, eliciting a wave of groans.

By then, the presidential candidate closest to the shooting, Beto O’Rourke, had already left Las Vegas, canceling events in Nevada and California on Saturday and Monday to return home. Earlier, the El Pasoan and former congressman had appeared shaken as the first reports of the shooting arrived.

“Keep that shit on the battlefield,” O’Rourke said of military-style weapons, drawing a burst of cheers and applause. “Do not bring it into our communities. I don’t want to see it in our malls or in our schools or in our churches or in our synagogues.”

He said, "Any illusion that progress is inevitable or that the change that we need is going to come of its own accord, shatter in moments like these and that it's upon every single one of us. There is no luxury in this democracy of sitting this one out.”

Several law enforcement agencies respond to an active shooter on Saturday in El Paso, Texas. | Mark Lambie/The El Paso Times via AP

O’Rourke appeared before reporters to answer post-event questions after a brief delay — allowing another candidate, Tom Steyer, to take his spot in the lineup.

When O'Rourke eventually came out to address reporters, he said he had spoken with El Paso’s mayor, the El Paso County sheriff and with the congresswoman who succeeded him, Veronica Escobar.

“They are all doing everything that they can, and we’re still learning information about the situation,” O’Rourke said. “And so, I just ask for everyone’s strength for El Paso right now, everyone’s resolve to make sure that this does not continue to happen in this country.”

Choking back tears, he said, “I am incredibly saddened, and it is very hard to think about this … But I’ll tell you, El Paso is the strongest place in the world. This community’s going to come together. I’m going back there right now to be with my family, to be with my hometown.”

O’Rourke, more than most candidates, has grounded his political profile in his home town. He has used El Paso as an example for its relatively low crime rate and, situated on the border with Juarez, Mexico, its multiculturalism. By Saturday afternoon, hours after the shooting, he was tweeting the addresses of a family reunification center and a location to donate blood. The top of his website was overhauled to include the same information.

Meanwhile, Steyer, the billionaire Democratic activist and late entrant into the 2020 primary, placed blame on “a failed government in Washington, D.C.” that he said is beholden to the interests of gun manufacturers, while Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) vowed to “take on the NRA.”

“I just cannot believe this,” she said.

Twenty people were killed, 26 injured and one person, a white male from Allen, Texas, who wrote a manifesto before the shooting, was in custody, police said Saturday evening.

President Donald Trump was briefed on the incident, according to the White House, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was heading to El Paso on Saturday afternoon, according to a statement.

Trump tweeted Saturday: "Terrible shootings in ElPaso, Texas. Reports are very bad, many killed. Working with State and Local authorities, and Law Enforcement. Spoke to Governor to pledge total support of Federal Government. God be with you all!"

Escobar was conducting a town hall when she was given the news of the shooting and canceled the rest of the meeting at the police department's request.

"You all, I am so sorry, there's an active shooter. We are going to need to clear the event," said Escobar. "I'm so sorry we had to end this early. Thank you all for coming and please stay safe."

In a statement, Escobar said: “Today, El Paso is facing the indescribable pain and horror that too many other American communities have had to endure. Our hearts are completely broken by this needless loss of life, especially here in our beautiful home. ... I am imploring that we come together, and once and for all address the gun violence epidemic that plagues our nation.”

In Las Vegas, Pete Buttigieg, who was closing the day’s event, said the shooting went beyond “thoughts and prayers.”

“This is a national security emergency that is killing Americans, just as it is killing people around the world,” he said. “And until this country has, one, serious readiness to confront white nationalist violence, and two, serious readiness to implement gun safety policies that most Americans think we ought to do anyway, we are going to continue to be leaving ourselves and our children vulnerable to these kinds of attacks.”